260 
EXPERIMENTS ON THE 
5th Experiment. 
Subject, a heavy riding-horse, with a crack in the front of the 
hoof, extending from the coronet downwards to the bottom of the 
hoof. The horse was verv lame. 
%/ 
Jo this horse a.shoe was applied with a flat piece of thin iron 
welded to each quarter of the shoe, and bent to fit close to the 
hoof. Near to where these two pieces of iron should have met at 
the centre of the hoof, th£y were cut off and bent, and a screw and 
tap adapted so as to draw these ends together and bind the hoof. 
The screw was now turned until it completely brought the ends of 
the crack together. 
Result .—The horse was immediately much relieved of his 
lameness, and he continued to wear a similar shoe for months 
without inconvenience ; and from the manner it was fastened to the 
foot, 1 should consider it physically impossible for lateral expansion 
to have taken place at the lower circumference of the foot. 
Observation —This is, however, nothing more than the every¬ 
day occurrence of tying up a horse’s foot for sandcrack, when I do 
not see how lateral expansion could go on. Again, how often are 
cart-horses, from defective horn or other causes, shod with clips and 
counter-clips in all directions, without causing any inconvenience ! 
Qth Experiment. 
The foot of a horse recently killed was procured : it was that 
of a cart-horse, and was a good foot, moderately concave. This 
hoof retained its natural contents, with the attachments of skin, 
&c., and was cut off at the small pastern joint. 
A portion of hoof was completely taken out of one quarter (in 
the direction of the fibres), an inch and a half high by one inch 
broad, with a fine trephining saw, leaving the laminse exposed, and 
the heel of the coffin-bone could be felt. A perfectly flat plate of 
iron was laid on the under surface of the foot (the frog being above 
the level of the heels), and to the upper articulatory surface of the 
small pastern a piece of wood was accurately fitted, having a flat 
upper surface, for the purpose of being received in a vice. The 
foot thus prepared was put into a very powerful smith’s vice, the 
wood and the flat plate of iron being the opposing surfaces, and 
pressure was applied, whilst at the same time my finger was held 
in contact with the-exposed heel of the coffin-bone, as also against 
the side of the hoof. 
Result .—Although great pressure was applied, I could not 
detect any descent of'the heels of the coffin-bone, nor any motion 
at the base of the frog. Although I failed to produce any motion 
